Oscar Grant Verdict Analysis - Justice Served

Ex-transit cop guilty of involuntary manslaughter

I agree with the "Involuntary Manslaughter" verdict rendered by the jury in the Oscar Grant trail in California.

Manslaughter defined:

Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder.
The law generally differentiates between levels of criminal culpability based on the mens rea, or state of mind. This is particularly true within the law of homicide, where murder requires either the intent to kill - a state of mind called malice, or malice aforethought - or the knowledge that one's actions are likely to result in death; manslaughter, on the other hand, requires a lack of any prior intention to kill or create a deadly situation.
Manslaughter is usually broken down into two distinct categories: voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter.

The possible outcomes are summarized as follows:

• Not Guilty -former officer Johannes Mehserle walks free
• Guilty of Murder - Mehserle would have been judged to have intended to kill Grant in a premeditated and malicious manner
• Guilty of Involuntary Manslaughter - see above

As a police officer Johannes Mehserle was entrusted to carry lethal weapons and training on the law and how to use these weapons in the conduct of enforcing California law as he engaged with civilians in the public transit property.   Officer Mehserle had engaged Oscar Grant and was working to detain him within the context of his job.

In drawing his service revolver and shooting Oscar Grant as he laid on the ground Mehserle acted in a way that was far out of accord with the level of threat that Grant exhibited.  Mehserle indicated that he thought that he was drawing his non-lethal Tazer device but instead drew his pistols and fired.  

"Oops my bad" was out of the question in this instance.   If Oscar Grant had a weapon and was in an aggressive posture my benefit of the doubt would swing toward the officer.

Since this highly trained individual who has the authority of law enforcement resting up on his back acted in such an incompetent manner that resulted in a man's death - Involuntary Manslaughter is the best and most appropriate ruling in my opinion.

I hope and pray that the anarchist in Oakland don't take advantage of this situation and wage a violent and destructive protest against the city of Oakland as they use this verdict that didn't totally go their way as an excuse for violent expression.

With all due respect to the Grant family - I hope that one day the community that is upset over the homicide of Oscar Grant at the hands of the police will one day be as consistently passionate against the killers of thousands of other young Black males that have their lives and potential snatched away from them by rogue individuals who have a far lower grade of expectations placed upon them because they are not seen as "authority figures".  The keep problem is the degraded image that the community sees them as.  They too often live down to it.